For the undergraduates here, I know you’re well-accustomed to the challenge of staying awake through long lectures. I promise I won’t test your endurance too much today. I’m reminded of the time when George Bernard Shaw told a famous orator he had 15 minutes to speak. The orator protested, “How can I possibly tell them all I know in 15 minutes?” Shaw replied, “I advise you to speak slowly”.

He also mentioned Eric Greitens who has a unbelievable RIDONKCULOUS resume. But his main point was for all Americans, especially those from L337 institutions, to consider answering the call to service for a variety of reasons:

But beyond the hardship and heartbreak – and they are real – there is another side to military service. That is the opportunity to be given extraordinary responsibility at a young age – not just for lives of your troops, but for missions and decisions that may change the course of history. In addition to being in the fight, our young military leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan, have to one degree or another found themselves dealing with development, governance, agriculture, and diplomacy. They’ve done all this at an age when many of their peers are reading spreadsheets and making photocopies (HD: LOLOLOL). And that is why, I should add, they are often in such high demand with future employers and go on to do great things – in scholarship, in government, in business – in every walk of life.

Absolutely: “The all-volunteer uniformed services now represent less than 1 percent of the American population, but they’re carrying 100 percent of the battle.”

If we are mark’d to die, we are enowTo do our country loss; and if to live,The fewer men, the greater share of honour.

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.” — Theodore Roosevelt, 1906